Summer Checkoff Meetings Open to All

Reminder to all beef producers and importers: If you pay the checkoff, you can attend checkoff meetings at no cost, and that includes checkoff meetings at the upcoming 2012 Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver.

A recent media advisory and other communications from the checkoff remind producers and importers that all beef checkoff meetings are open to every person who pays the checkoff, free of charge. During the summer conference later this month, this includes meetings of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB); the Federation of State Beef Councils (Federation); and joint committee meetings that include checkoff representation.

If you know someone interested in participating in checkoff meetings at the conference but not registering for the full event, please direct them to the checkoff-only registration link. For committee meeting minutes, agendas and other materials, visit this meeting blog before, during and after the summer conference to keep updated about checkoff actions.

Getting To Know Board Members

Mike Stahly is a Beef Board member who I caught doing a farm broadcaster interview at the summer conference. Let’s learn more about him.

Mike is a 4th generation rancher. He is the past president of the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association, past president of Central South Dakota Cattlemen’s Affiliate, past president of the South Dakota Hereford Association and county board member for the South Dakota Farm Bureau. Mike is also an Army veteran.

Mike says about working on the Beef Board, “it’s an interesting experience.” He had served on the Federation board so he felt like that kind of prepared him for the experience. For cattlemen who are considering getting involved he says, “It’s well worth it. You’ll meet people that you’ll never get to meet elsewhere, from all walks of life. I just got done eating dinner sitting beside the meat buyer for Wendy’s. Just to listen to him for a half an hour was fascinating.”

You can listen to my interview with Mike here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Getting To Know Board Members

It’s time to meet another member of the Beef Board. This time let’s talk with E.B. Harris. He attended the summer conference where he could interact with other members from around the country.

Ernest “E.B.” is a third-generation cow-calf beef producer on a family farm established in 1916 in Warrenton, NC. He is also president and owner of E. B. Harris, Inc./Auctioneers, which launched in 1977. He is responsible for the farm sales of equipment, cattle, logging equipment and real estate.

E.B. says that Beef Checkoff advertising dollars help increase beef demand which is important to him since he’s in an area where they produce more than can be consumed locally. Besides his financial investment in the Beef Checkoff he says that investing his time working on Beef Board activities is worth it. He also feels very positive about “moving forward” to get beyond some of the recent challenges within the organization and industry. To other cattle producers he says, “Get involved. If you pay that one dollar Checkoff, get involved.”

You can listen to my interview with E.B. here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Getting To Know Board Members

Let’s meet another member of the Beef Board. He’s Larry Oltjen. Like the folks you see at work in this committee meeting Larry was attending the summer conference.

Larry is a fourth-generation farmer/feeder/stockman in Brown County, Kansas. He grows about 4,000 acres of corn, soybeans and alfalfa and also runs a 260-head commercial cow herd in partnership with his father and son. In addition, he feeds out the calves and feed in various feedlots in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.

Larry says that he gets the feeling that everyone is ready to look forward to the future. He says his time on the Board has been important since it has allowed him to get to know people across the country. He says that if you’ve got the time it’s well worth it to attend these meetings and get involved.

You can listen to my interview with Larry here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Getting To Know Board Members

Here are Beef Board members in action during one of the summer conference committee meetings.

I visited with one of them, Chris Schluntz, Republican City, NE, out in the hall in between meetings. Chris is part of the 4th generation to farm where his great grandfather homesteaded in south central Nebraska. He farms with two brothers, an uncle and two nephews. The farm consists of a commercial cow/calf herd, a feedlot and irrigated and dryland crops.

He says serving on the Beef Board has been very educational to him. It has helped him learn how the process works and how to serve the industry by promoting beef. He’s on the Joint International Markets Committee which he says has helped his business by building demand for his product and creating new markets. He encourages any cattle producer to get involved.

You can listen to my interview with Chris here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

You’re A Blessing

Polly Ruhland, Interim CEO for the Beef Board started off her report during the board meeting with a question.

I’d like to start with a question.

How many of you are BLESSED?

Look around this room, at your neighbor and across the rows. This is an incredible group of people, jam-packed with blessings.

Now, another question.

How many of you are BLESSED to be here, right here, right now, doing what you are doing?

Take another minute to look around you. Nearly everyone in this room recognizes that they are blessed to be here.

I know why.

Every person in this room has been chosen to be here. You are here for a purpose.
What is that purpose?

To lead. To imagine what could be. To make it happen.

To make decisions. Even decisions, especially decisions, that are debatable…difficult…even dumbfounding. You were chosen to do that.

The Checkoff itself is a blessing…don’t you think so too?

You can listen to Polly’s report here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Wrapping Things Up With The Chairman

I started out these posts from the Cattle Industry Summer Conference with a preview interview with Wesley Grau, newly elected Beef Board Chairman. Now we’ll close things out with a wrap up interview.

Wesley says that things went well at the meeting, “We’ve had an attitude change. We’ve had a strengthening of the industry through unification. At the same time we endeavor to remain all inclusive for every producer in the United States.” He says he looks forward to moving in a positive direction.

You can listen to my closing interview with Wesley here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

History of the Beef Checkoff

During the board meeting we heard a fascinating history of the Beef Checkoff by Wayne Watkinson. I had just interviewed him a couple days ago on this very subject.

Wayne made a point of starting out by saying that contrary to some reports he did not author the first attempt at a Beef Checkoff in 1922. We’ll add a link to his slides here later because he went into some detail about how the Beef Checkoff as we know it today came into being and has evolved.

You can listen to Wayne’s historical report here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Financial Report

Within mere hours after being elected to the officer team as Secretary/Treasurer, Roger West gave the financial report during the board meeting at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference.

This morning’s meeting went very smoothly and the business of the board concluded on a very positive note.

You can listen to Roger’s financial report here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Committee Meetings Doing 2012 Planning

During the Cattle Industry Summer Conference committees get to work looking at projects and funding requests for the coming fiscal year. Most of these committees met yesterday. Let’s learn about what took place in one of the meetings, the Joint Retail Committee.

During this meeting members saw very interesting presentations including one on how consumers can learn to make their own cuts of meat. I spoke with meeting leader Jim Etheridge. He says they looked at “beef intelligence” they have on retail information and then used that to talk about merchandising solutions. He says the committee felt strongly that the Beef Checkoff needs to continue to be very involved in the retail channel.

You can listen to my interview with Jim here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Getting To Know Board Members

During the Cattle Industry Summer Conference I had an opportunity to meet and visit with numerous Beef Board members and asked them to share some thoughts about serving on the board. Two of the first members I spoke with were Bryant Fisher (left) and Larry Echols.

Bryant runs a dairy farm that includes the six major breeds of dairy cattle and some cross-breeds. He is an active participant in his community and in the dairy industry.

Larry runs a cow-calf and stocker operation near Gap Mills and also raises sheep and hay.

You can listen to my interview with Bryant and Larry here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

New Officer Slate For Beef Board

In today’s CBB Update Session elections were held to fill the vacant Chairman position. Elected were:

Chair: Wesley Grau, Grady, NM
Vice Chair: Weldon Wynn, Star City, Ark.
Secretary/Treasurer: Roger West, Gainesville, Fla.

I caught up with Roger after the meeting and visited with him since he’s the “new” officer. Both Wesley and Weldon were already in officer positions. Roger is a cow/calf operator and that keeps him busy. He feels honored to have been elected as an officer. He says “we’re ready to move on.”

You can listen to my interview with Roger here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

CBB Update Session

During the Cattle Industry Summer Conference a CBB Update Session is held at which Board members and other parties make reports and conduct some business prior to tomorrow’s board meeting.

Starting us off was Acting Beef Board Chairman, Wesley Grau. In fact, Wesley manages the meeting which included some votes on various issues. More information on that will be published later.

I recorded a portion of the session for you to listen to so you can get a flavor for the type of reports and work conducted in this session.

You can listen to a portion of the CBB Update Session here:

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Looking Back Over 25 Years of the Beef Checkoff

The Beef Board staff is publishing a weekly six-part series featuring 25 years of beef checkoff successes. This is an excerpt from the first part titled, “Turning your $1-per-head assessments into opportunities.” You can read the full article by clicking on this link.

It was 1986: A gallon of gas cost 89 cents; a pound of ground beef cost about $1.29 at retail; a movie ticket was $3.71; the average price of the average monthly rent was $385; the average price of a home was $89,430; and the national Beef Checkoff Program went into effect at $1-per-head.

For certain, walking through the 25-year history of the beef industry will take you down some rocky roads, as well as highlight some clear paths to growth, all en route to a beef industry that you’ll be proud to pass on to the next generation.

One of the people who was involved early in the process was Wayne Watkinson, pictured at the head table during our CBB Update Session at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference. I visited with him about his legal work with the Checkoff and he shared some very interesting anecdotes that include when he helped write the Act and during the years he has served as legal counsel. I think you’ll enjoy hearing him.

You can listen to my interview with Wayne here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Talking With Cattlewomen About Programs

This afternoon as I was leaving one of the committee meetings at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference I ran in to two people I had hoped to find and interview. How coincidental is that and convenient too! So I spoke with Sarah Bohnenkamp (left) Program Manager, American National Cattlewomen (ANCW) and Tammi Didlot, President-Elect, ANCW.

I spoke first with Tammi. She says that ANCW holds meetings here like the other organizations to do planning for the future and conduct educational sessions for members. They set goals for committees and then look at how those committees are performing. She says they’re looking at new ways to educate youth and get collegiate cattlewomen involved.

You can listen to my interview with Tammi here.

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Sarah is managing the Beef Ambassador program as well as the Telling the Beef Story program. She says the ambassadors have been out at very large consumer events connecting with people who are curious about things they’ve read and heard about beef, a lot of which is from very uninformed sources. Sarah says that just like other Beef Checkoff funded programs, she has authorization requests in for committee review here at the Summer Conference. We wish her well with her presentation tomorrow.

You can listen to my interview with Sarah here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Audit Committee Meeting

One of the committees meeting today at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference is the Audit Committee. I visited with Katherine Ayers, Chief Financial Officer for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. Here’s Katherine giving a report during the meeting.

The Audit Committee works with the independent auditors engaged by the Board to ensure that its books and records, internal accounting controls and management practices assure the proper level of accountability for the Beef Checkoff Program.

You can listen to my interview with Katherine here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Beef Board Executive Committee Meets

The leadership for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board kicked off their meetings with the Executive Committee this morning. Leading the way is Acting Chairman Wesley Grau (center). I spoke to him before things got started. He says they’ll be working on industry solutions and “settling some of the dust that’s been stirred up the last few years and we’re basically changing our attitude and getting on with the job of promoting beef.” He says the “Checkoff is as good as its ever been.” However, if you adjust the Checkoff dollar for inflation and other factors you’re only using about 23% as much money to promote beef as in 1985!

You can listen to my interview with Wesley here.

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2011 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Preview Of Cattle Industry Summer Conference

The Cattle Industry Summer Conference is just getting underway in Kissimmee, FL. I’ll be your Beef Board Blogger once again and provide you with photos and interviews of the activity taking place here.

To get things started I spoke with Beef Board Interim CEO, Polly Ruhland. Polly says the Beef Board meets with the joint committees and reviews all of the authorization requests for proposed work that the Operating Committee will then review in September. It’s grass roots in action as cattle producers meet here in all these committees. It’s a very important meeting for the Beef Checkoff.

Polly also told me that she has spoken with quite a few board members recently and of course the staff. She says they’re all excited to move forward and have the stuff that has been happening behind them. She calls it a renewed relationship with NCBA and the Federation of State Beef Councils.

Polly also describes the “dashboard” that has been created to monitor the progress being made on the new industry long range plan. This includes a regular check on the objectives which will be done here at this meeting.

You can listen to my interview with Polly here.

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Cattle Industry Summer Conference Concludes

I thought an appropriate concluding photo for this year’s Cattle Industry Summer Conference would be one showing our officers taking the oath again as new Beef Board members were sworn in. It has been my honor and pleasure to serve again as your Beef Board Blogger. I hope the interviews and audio files have provided you with an insight into the activities and actions of the board during one of the major meetings of the year.

As soon as they can be completed and posted you’ll find agendas and minutes from each of the committees posted onto their respective pages which you’ll find here.

Additionally, I have posted a lot of photos into a conference photo album that contains mostly CBB activity photos but others photos from the conference as well including the general sessions. Please feel free to visit and download any of the photos if you’d like: 2010 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Board Meeting

The last activity that took place at the conference was the board meeting. Here are a couple of the officers talking with CBB CEO Tom Ramey as they are getting ready for their reports. I’ve got a couple of the reports from Beef Board officers for you. They include the financial report by Sec./Treasurer Robert Fountain, Jr. and the operating committee report by Chairman Dan Dierschke.

You can listen to and download (mp3) the financial report here:

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You can listen to and download (mp3) the operating committee report here:

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